A day after Beijing released a defence White Paper emphasising the role and profile of the Chinese Navy, India’s navy chief, Admiral Karambir Singh, argued on Thursday for more funds for building naval warships.
With the navy’s budget declining in real terms and the service facing internal defence ministry opposition to its proposal for building a second indigenous aircraft carrier, the navy chief rejected “a narrative, where budgetary allocation for naval shipbuilding is considered by some to be a drain on the economy.”
Addressing a Ficci seminar in New Delhi, Singh rode on the navy’s successful indigenisation programme to make a three-point